Dance Hall of the Dead (1973)

A durable and inexpensive type of flooring that was invented in the nineteenth century and became quite popular in the U.S. in the 1950s and onward. Linoleum floor covering is made of a combination of solidified linseed oil (the "lin" in "linoleum"), wood dust, and pigment. This substance is then thickly layered onto a flexible backing such as canvas or burlap. Because of its durable nature and availability, linoleum can now be found in homes, public buildings, printshops and other workshops, as well as breakdance studios.

In military or paramilitary organizations, such as police departments, a hierarchical organization of personnel exists, often called the chain of command.

The general rankings within a police force, depending on its size, is as follows, in order from highest to lowest rankings:

• Chief
• Deputy/Assistant Chief
• Commander
• Inspector
• Captain
• Lieutenant
• Sergeant
• Trooper
• Police Officer

A term that means deadly. Literally. If something is lethal, it will kill you. If some one has a lethal intention, his or her intention is to kill.

Tony Hillerman’s use of “Division of Law and Order” as part of the Navajo Nation's tribal authority is an intentional “mistake,” as there is no Division of Law and Order under the Navajo Tribal Council. Rather, the Navajo Nation maintains the Division of Public Safety, under which are several branches, including the Navajo Police Department. In addition, Hillerman makes a distinction between local Law and Order, which occurs at the tribal and agency level, and federal Law and Order, which occurs at the bureau level and emanates from Washington, D.C.

Law and order, as understood from a Western perspective, was established among the Navajo by an 1849 Treaty between the United States and the Navajo. In exchange for Navajo recognition of U.S. authority, access to and passage through Navajo lands, and the establishment on Navajo lands of U.S. military posts, the U.S. would provide "gifts" to the Navajo. Later, from the time the U.S. acquired the territory of New Mexico from Mexico during the Mexican-American War (1846-48), "law enforcement" among the Navajo was handled primarily by the U.S. military or by the Federal Government’s Branch of Law and Order. This included the forced relocation of the Navajo from their tribal lands during the Long Walk and internment at Bosque Redondo near Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

Today, the Navajo Police Department is a law enforcement agency on the Navajo Nation Reservation, originally established in 1872, four years after the Navajo were released from captivity in Fort Sumner. Despite it's initial success, the Navajo Tribal Police was dissolved in 1975. The Navajo Nation Police were not reestablished until 1959 when the Navajo Tribal Council requested its reinstatement.

A general reference to the societal construction of and belief in "the law" as a body of order, surveillance, and discipline. The "law" can also be practiced by lawyers and advocates as well as enacted by public servants, such as police officers. Hillerman's relationship with "the law," at least in his novels, is ambiguous. At times, the law, as dictated by a society, serves to extract civil order from uncivil chaos. On the other hand, cultural traditions, such as those he observed on the Navajo and other reservations, seem to express a natural law, one that perhaps informs but that also transcends jurisprudence, for example the Navajo idea of hózhǫ́, an expression of natural equilibrium. The protagonists in Hillerman's Navajo detective novels, Leaphorn and Chee, are often placed in situations where they understand the written laws, but remain aware of the limitations and contradictions of the written law as it is practiced.

A way of fastening a door. Rather than a door knob, a piece of wood or metal slips over a catch or through a lock to hold the door in place. This can be a simple, old fashioned and do-it-yourself technology, cheaper than buying hardware.

A lance is a long-shafted throwing or thrusting device used for hunting. It is similar to a javelin, and is sometimes referred to as a spear. The lance point can be made of stone, bone, hardened wood, or steel. Although the long shaft of the lance is typically made of wood, which biodegrades over time, the point retains its integrity as time passes, making lance points a significant find in the lithic, or stone, remains from ancient cultures around the world. In terms of archaeological research, lance points, which are similar to hand-crafted arrow heads, are like the fingerprints of a culture. Studying them can reveal where the materials to make the points came from, where the groups using the points traveled, how much time, energy, and skill the individuals crafting the points had, as well as the kind of game that was hunted.

The Laguna Pueblo of central New Mexico consists of six major villages, of which the political center is Old Laguna (Kawaika) on a knoll above the San Jose River about 42 miles west of Albuquerque on U.S. Route 66/Interstate-40.

Although each Pueblo community is unique, Pueblos along the Rio Grande in New Mexico all share some common characteristics. From architecture to spiritual observances, Pueblo life consists of an integration of nature, spirit, and material in a synthesis that looks toward the holistic well-being not just of the community but also the universe in which it exists.

Clown figures that appear alongside kachina during Zuni and Hopi ceremonial processions and dances. With grotesque features formed from misshapen and irregular lumps of clay, koyemshi appear uncanny and unformed, familiar yet disturbingly alien. Part of their purpose is to maintain order during ceremonial occassions, and to do so they employ ribald humour and an organic, mocking slapstick that underscores the sacredness and moral seriousness of the ceremony at hand by countering it with sly parody and comedic anarchy.

According to the Zuni migration story, as the Zuni migrated in search of the Middle Place, conceptually understood to be the center of the world and what today is known as Halona:Itiwana, or the Zuni Pueblo, the people split into several groups. One group followed the Little Colorado River south, and near to where it joins the Zuni River running west out of what today is New Mexico, they found Lake Kothluwalawa, also spelled Koluwala:wa. Underneath its waters lay a village where the Zuni kachina, or ancestor spirits, live. The Zuni believe that after they die, they return to the lake to join their ancestors.

Kothluwalawa is also referred to as the Dance Hall of the Dead.